


Ursa Minor

by talelore



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe, mabifica will be in this but it might take a bit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-21
Updated: 2016-02-28
Packaged: 2018-05-22 07:31:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6070579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talelore/pseuds/talelore
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Separated at birth and raised by very different sides of the same coin, Mabel and Dipper Pines finally meet the summer before their 13th birthday. How hard can it be to get to know your twin amongst magic and family drama?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

            “I wish it was different just as much as you do. But there is no way around this.”

            “Come on! There has to be something!”

            “They can’t stay together Stanley! Their parents are gone and you know what will happen if it’s complete.”

            "Actually we _don't_ know what will happen. That's kind of the whole point, poindexter."

            “Whatever it is we both know it can’t possibly be good. I’ll take the boy to California. I have a friend there who can help me set up. You should stay here with the girl.”

            "We should at least name them while they’re here together."

            "Hmm I guess you’re right. What about Mabel and-"

* * *

 

            Dipper Pines first real impression of Gravity Falls was the air. He had been breathing in recycled bus air for fourteen hours before reaching Oregon and when he finally stepped out onto the dirt he was hit full force by a cool breeze laced with just a hint of pine. His second impression was a lot less pleasant. As the bus pulled away behind him, Dipper found himself alone with the heavy feeling of being watched. After a quick glance into the woods behind him he brushed the feeling off.

            Meeting a twin you didn’t know you had for the first twelve years of your life is more than enough to deal with. He didn’t need to add paranoia to his growing list things to be stressed about (a real list he kept by the way, because lists are amazing and helpful with organization dammit). Getting from the bus stop to his destination turned out to be easier than he expected. Someone clearly wanted to get tourists right as they arrived in town because signs had been posted not three feet away from the stop advertising the “world famous” Mystery Shack. After a short walk in the woods the building in question started coming into view. And out of that building stormed a very angry looking man in his pjs.

            “Grunkle Stan! Where are you going?!” a voice from inside the shack called out. A girl about Dipper’s age rushed out after the man, her long hair falling out of its braid as she ran.

            “To the bus stop! As soon as I see him I’m turning him around, taking twenty dollars for my trouble, and sending him right back where he came from!” the man yelled back as he turned to face the house. “I can’t believe you would do something so sneaky and devious without me, Mabel!”

            “Well I couldn’t exactly do it with you, considering the whole ‘I know about your twin brother but I’m not going to say a word to you about him for twelve years’ thing!”

            “Mabel? Mabel Pines?” Dipper piped up. Two heads whipped around to stare at him. While they had been arguing Dipper had made his way closer to the shack. Up close all of his doubts vanished. His own eyes stared back at him from not only the girl but from the old man as well. This was his family. He didn’t get much further than that in his thoughts before he was thrown into the dirt by the force of a hug.

            “Dipper! You have to be Dipper you look just like me! Oh my gosh you’re really here! Ignore Grunkle Stan. I can’t believe it’s my brother! My twin brother! I have so much to tell you and show you and I have like four sweaters ready for you to try on! And you have to meet Waddles and we’ll go mini golfing and we’ll stay up all night telling each other bad jokes! And then we’ll fight for who gets to be the alpha twin and-“

            “Mabel! He isn’t staying here! How did he even find out about us?” Stan interrupted as he walked over to the twins and started pulling Mabel back. Mabel turned to glare at him before offering a hand to Dipper.

            “I got one of your stupid mass email advertisements!” Dipper said, taking Mabel’s hand and pulling himself up, “It had a link to the Mystery Shack and said all of this stuff about mystical sights that can’t be explained. Anyway your website had employee pages and I saw Mabel’s. I mean it wasn’t too hard to put two and two together. She looked just like me and her last name was Pines! Plus you,” he pointed to Stan, “look exactly like Uncle Ford.”

            “Listen, kid I have no idea what you’re talking about. The shack doesn’t even get internet! How did you convince the poindexter to let you come here anyway? I mean he didn’t even warn me! I had to find out about all of this over my oatmeal! Don’t you kids know it’s rude to interrupt a man’s oatmeal?” Stan said as he moved himself between the two.

            “Alright I have no idea what you’re talking about. And Uncle Ford may or may not have been under the impression I was going to, um, a DD&MD tournament. Either way, I’ve been out here for like fifteen minutes and the mosquitos are forming a buffet line, so can I come in?” Dipper asked. Mabel immediately grabbed him from around Stan and started pulling him towards the cabin.

            “Of course! I have your bed all set up! You can throw your bag down and we can start on the scrapbook of-“

            “Whoa, whoa, whoa there hold up. He isn’t staying. He’s going back right now.”

            “No way! I rode a bus sixteen hours to get here! There’s no way I’m going back. She’s my twin and you’ve kept us apart for twelve years!” Dipper spoke up anxiously, twisting the zipper on his hoodie as he did.

            “Kid you have no idea what you’re doing. I’m calling Stanford right now and he’s gonna drag you right back.”

            “You can’t do this! I have the right to get to know my twin! Don’t you understand at all? You’re a twin!”

            “None of that matters! This is-“

            “ENOUGH!” Mabel shouted, “Dipper is _staying_. He’s my brother, Grunkle Stan. If you thought for a second that I was over the fact that you’ve been lying to me my whole life you’re wrong. And if you care about me at all, you’ll let him stay.” Mabel’s eyes grew softer and impossibly larger as she continued, “Stan I don’t want…I don’t want to hate you. But the way things are going I feel like I don’t even know you anymore. If you want to start fixing things between us you need to let him stay.” Her voice stayed level while she spoke but the emotion behind her words came through clear. There would be no defying her in this matter. Dipper glanced over at the girl’s stern face and smiled slightly. He liked his sister already. He was also kind of afraid of her but he was choosing to ignore that for the moment.

            Stan held her stare for so long that Dipper started to worry the two had been frozen, but finally he breathed out a heavy sigh.

            “I guess…it’s probably too late anyway. He’s already here in the town. The damage is done.” He looked over at Dipper. “Look you can stay for a little while but you’ve got to help out around here. I need new attractions so you better have a good imagination. Stanford thinks he sent you to that nerd game huh? He raised you to be a dork like him didn’t he? Maybe there’s still time we might be able to save you if you stay long enough. And you,” he said pointing at Mabel, “you’re covering Wendy’s shift the next time she bails to go throw water balloons off the roof.”

            Mabel immediately relaxed, releasing her shoulders and moving to push stray strands of hair behind her ear. A small smile pulled at her mouth, she took Dipper’s hand, and began moving towards the shack again.

            “Listen Dipper, Grunkle Stan is right. Technology can’t be trusted and I’ve been preparing for the war ever since my first T-shirt gun exploded and ruined four of my sweaters,” looking over her should she called back, “Thanks, Stan.” Mabel then continued leading Dipper inside excitedly telling him about her plans for a mini golf course in their room.

            Stan looked around the empty yard and sighed.

            “I shoulda put on pants before I left the house. There was no way I was winning this argument without pants.”


	2. Chapter 2

 

Chapter 2

            Settling in at the Mystery Shack was easier for Dipper than expected. Stan put him to work straight away explaining the tour routes of the shack and ignoring all of Dipper’s comments regarding the less than truthful aspects of the tour. He also told Dipper that it was probably best to wait a little while before telling Stanford where he really was and that what Ford didn’t know would probably wouldn’t kill him. Mabel introduced him to her two ‘best most incredible friends in all of the galaxy’, Candy and Grenda. Unfortunately Mabel went off with the girls for long periods of time when she wasn’t working at the shack and Dipper didn’t actually get to see her much.

            After about a week of scamming people and watching Ducktective until Mabel got back Dipper was starting to regret coming. He had been under the impression that meeting Mabel would feel like running into someone he’d known for years. But there was no magical connection. He liked her sure, she was fun and sweet, but she was a stranger. Their interactions were stilted and awkward, both unsure of one another. Dipper slowly realized the idea he had in his head of the relationship would take time, if it happened at all.

            It didn’t help that no one else seemed to notice all the weird happenings around town. The feeling from the bus stop still followed him. Always creeping up the back of his neck. It was stronger at certain times, usually he forgot about it, but it was always there.

            Dipper noticed strange things almost everywhere they went. When Stan took the twins to Greasy’s Diner for pancakes one morning Dipper was convinced the family at the booth behind them were elves. Granted he hadn’t had coffee yet and Stan got them up at an ungodly hour that morning but still he was pretty darn sure. He was similarly sure that the boy who was always at the pool was a merman but when he told Mabel she simply said, “Oh that’s Mermando! Of course’s he’s a merman! He was also my first kiss.” And then stared off into space dreamily. So she couldn’t have been serious which meant she probably didn’t believe him. Stan didn’t even react when Dipper tried asking him about the town. All he would say was that Dipper was wasting his time on all that and it wouldn’t do anyone any good to snoop.

            He was starting to consider going back home. His mosquito bites were horrendous and if he wanted to feel like an outsider all the time he could do that just as easily back in Palo Alto. Thankfully fate, or at the very least bad choices, intervened before he could try to leave.

            While he was out in the woods doing yet another Stan appointed task he found a tree with a metal section in it. After much fiddling, Dipper ended up unlocking an Indiana Jones style hiding spot beneath forest floor. Inside was an old journal with a six-fingered golden hand on the cover and it was filled with notes on the strange happenings Dipper had been suspicious of for days. But the journal also came with a warning, ‘trust no one’. His excitement shattered instantly. Ever since he found out about his twin a fear had been growing in him. Why hadn’t his great uncle ever told him about her? Clearly Stan hadn’t told Mabel either but why? The two had to be hiding something and the fact that the journal just happened to have six fingers like Ford did was not helping.

            His train of thought came to a screeching halt when he heard Mabel yelling for him in the distance. Dipper hastily shoved the journal into his bad along with supplies Stan had given him to nail up more signs and made his way back towards the shack.

            “DIPPER! QUICK I NEED YOUR HELP!” Mabel called out as soon as she spotted him.

            “Mabel I’m right here you don’t need to use your ‘people can hear me while skydiving’ voice”

            “But Dipper! This is important! Do I look okay?” Mabel asked as she turned around a few times to give him the full view of her outfit. She was wearing a bright purple sweater that looked like a glitter factory had thrown up on it and her hair was out of its braid for the first time since he’d known her.

            “Um I guess? Why does it matter today anyway you’ve never asked me before.”

            “Because! Today I have,” she paused here and sucked in a deep breath,” A DAAAAAATE! Love is in the air Dipper. Well, love and also smog from the Northwest plant but that’s beside the point. ”

            “What? Whatever, Mabel, listen I need to tell you something. I found this old journal in the woods and it talks about all of this supernatural stuff that goes on in this town!”

 

* * *

 

           

            “And then you said ‘ugh Dipper I don’t have time to talk about nerd stuff!’ and look what happened! Nerd stuff saves lives Mabel.”

            Mabel stopped where she had been walking up the steps of the shack and turned to face Dipper. Her hair was a mess with leaves stuck in various places and her sweater was torn in the side.

            “Well how was I supposed to know my boyfriend would turn out to be a bunch of gnomes? It was horrible Dipper it was like The Bachelor only with forced marriage to uphold a weird society of, wait hold on, it was exactly like The Bachelor. Also I’m definitely only dating blondes from now on.”

            Laughing Dipper smiled up at her. He looked just as disheveled as she did with his hat gone and only one shoe on his foot.

            “I’m not sure it was the hair color that was the problem Mabel. But anyway I’m just glad we got rid of them and that you’re okay.” Dipper said.

            “About that,” Mabel started to say as she played with her hair, “Thank you for coming to get me. I’ve… well I’ve never really had someone looking out for me like that before.”

            “Uh yeah I mean, that’s what brothers are for I guess?” Dipper replied.

            “Awkward long lost twin sibling hug?” Mabel offered.

            Dipper moved in for the hug, and for the first time since he got there, he finally felt like family. It felt so familiar and natural, because just as they were about to pull away from the hug, the both said ‘pat pat’ in monotone voices as they playfully slapped each other’s backs.

            Laughing the twins dragged themselves into the Shack, completely exhausted by the day. Stan was at the counter going through the tips they had received for the day when the two walked in. He eyed them as Dipper kicked the door shut and started to chuckle.

            “Yeesh! You two look like you got hit by a bus or something.”

            “Yeah Dipper and me are going to bed early tonight for sure.” Mabel replied and started to make her way towards the stairs.

            “Uh, hey, wait, um… Dipper? It uh… it seems I got too much junk in the gift shop so why don’t you pick something out or whatever. Just one thing though you hear me?”

            Mabel whipped around, her face lit up with happiness.

            “OH DIPPER! This is so great this is how Stan shows affection!!”

            “CAN IT PUMPKIN.” Stan slammed the cash down and glared at his great niece.

            “Get a grappling hook! It’s what I picked and I’ve never regretted it.” She continued, ignoring her grunkle.

            Dipper’s eyes scanned around the room until they landed on a white and blue hat with a pine tree logo on it.

            “Actually, I think I’ll just replace the hat I lost.” He said as he pulled it over his head. Dipper gave himself a small smile while checking the hat in the mirror next to the stand and then made his way upstairs.

            Later that night while Mabel was showing Dipper her great aim with the grappling hook, Dipper’s phone went off. After a brief search through sheets that always ate his phone, he unlocked it to find a new email. The subject line read ‘Gravity Falls Mystery Shack Number One Vacation Spot? Probably!’. It seemed to be another advertisement that Dipper had tried to tell Stan about earlier. But when he opened the email it was blank. Dipper exited out of the screen and looked at the subject again, however it had changed to read ‘Click Start’. Frowning Dipper opened the email again to find it now contained a message.

            “go͠o͡d ̀job͡ ͞k̡id͏!  
            ǫńȩ ͠j͡o҉ur̢n͟al̵ do̕wn  
            tw̛o to ̡go̷  
            I'̷l̛l k̶e̢e͜p̕ an ̴èy̢ę ̕on y̨ou̡ a̶n̕d s̨ho̸oting st͢ar̕  
            f͞r͏om̕ ov̕e r͡ ̕h̨e̴r͡e͞  
            do͘ņ'̡t̛ ͟trust͏ t̶h̕e ͞o̷ther̷ ͘me ̧!͝  
            ”

            “Uh Mabel. I think you should come take a look at this."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so sadly the next chapter might take a bit more time to be posted because I haven't even started it yet whoops  
> but I promise I'll get it up as soon as I can!  
> (comments always help speed up my motivation just saying)  
> if you need me in the meantime my tumblr is @pinestwin


End file.
